Fidelity Labs, the R&D think tank inside of Fidelity Investments, has launched StockCity for Oculus, a tool that combines virtual reality with data visualization to transform an investor’s stock portfolio into a city that conveys information about stocks without a single number or percentage.

Technology has made the human element of high- and low-touch trading almost indistinguishable. Brokers can no longer compete on price. Instead, they should build toward user experience and value of outcome.

By Michael Corcoran Managing Director, Head of Sales and Trading in Asia Pacific, 10/28/2014

Fidelity Labs is running a pilot on LinkedIn that lets financial advisers interact with their book of customers. That's just one example of how the tech incubator is seeding ideas and developing future products for its parent company.

It wasn't all bad luck for the capital markets this week: Hedge funds had a decent first quarter despite a slowdown in jobs numbers, BlackRock might be heading into new territory as hedge fund managers take a hard look at their counterparties, and the head of the IMF didn't pull any punches when assessing today's global economy. At least we can admire the nice weather and some of the best quotes of the week.